Neverlasting Peace
by BladesEdge
Summary: We know how to organize warfare, but do we know how to act when confronted with peace? -- Jacques-Yves Cousteau 1910-1997
1. Chapter 1

**Neverlasting Peace **

**Chapter One **

**Disclaimer: If I owned Halo, this would be in a game.**

_Here then, is the problem we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war? _

_- The Russell-Einstein Manifesto, 1955_

--

_Year 2659_

"Up! Up! Here they come!" shouted Lieutenant Tyler Marks as a wave of Elites rushed forward towards his platoon's trenches.

It was funny in a way. Trench warfare hadn't been used in hundreds of years and yet, here they were, in foxholes and trenches. It was the most effective as Elites seemed to have a passion for charging. When the UNSC declared peace with the Covenant, no one could have expected a barroom brawl to turn into another war. While most of the Elites returned to Sanghelios, a fair number remained on Earth. After a drunken brawl between Elites and humans, a mob of angry citizens proceeded to beat or kill all the Elites they could find before the UNSC sent in the National Guard. It was too late however, as the signals were already sent. A month later, Elite ships glassed Corona, an outer colony, and declared war on mankind. A hundred ships arrived in the Sol System and were only defeated by Earth's three hundred original Super-MACs and fifty nearby ships.

"Hey Sarge, why the hell didn't they glass Graves too?" Private First-Class Randy Orel shouted to Gunnery Sergeant Stephen Blake.

"You leave that shit to the spooks and deal with the shit in front of us." Blake responded coolly, stubbing a cigarette as he shouldered his ARK, called the "King" for its accuracy and firepower. Marks only had enough time to thumb the safety off his NC baseline Carbine before a wave of plasma washed over the Marines. The Marines responded with a symphony of clicks and a blast of firepower from their standard-issue MA5Vs.

"Holy shit! They got swords-!" bawled a Marine right before his head was blown off from an overcharged Plasma Pistol. Marks swore and did a quick "Hail Mary" before he raised his head above his foxhole. There it was. A golden armor Elite, along with red and gray covered ones, was swinging an Energy Sword as they approached.

Marks quickly ducked before the Elites could draw bead on him screamed, "Where the hell are the gatling guns!"

"Taken out, sir. A plasma mortar fell on it last night and the heat has distorted the other one. One's left but there under heavy fire. There are fucking WRAITHS over there trying to take it out.

Marks swore again and grabbed two frags at the same time. "Fire in the hole!" Marks yelled as he chucked both of them over the edge. A roar of pain and anger followed two consecutive bangs. Other Marines quickly warmed to the idea and grenades fly over foxholes.

There was one thing about Elites that Marks hated, they never gave up and they grew angry to the grenade lobbing quickly. Screams, followed by gunfire, erupted. Marks shuddered as he realized what had happened.

"The hell was that?" the inquisitive PFC asked.

"Sounded like my girlfriend, that cheating slut!" joked a Marine farther down the trench. Nervous laughter filled the air, punctuated by the whizzing of plasma and the dry staccato of gunfire, along with the screams. The question remained unanswered for better or for worst. Marks did a quick check and was puzzled. The nearest sword-swinging Elite was A hundred meters from the front most trench. Something didn't seem right. While he contemplated the problem he mindlessly fired his Carbine at oncoming Elites. Another scream. Marks tracked it to the foxhole it came from and fired a questioning round at it. Something seemed to shimmer. Puzzled, Marks was about to fire another round when an the sound of an ARK to the left of him went off on full auto, followed two seconds later, a full sixty bullets later, by an empty, echoing click. Two Elites materialized dead on the ground, heading towards the next foxhole.

"Nice shot Sergeant, but how did you know that those sandbagging son-of-a-bitches were invisible?" Marks asked.

"Read the in-flight articles." Blake grunted. "Hell, too bad those SPARTANs are dead though. They must've been tough as nails to survive hundreds of confrontations with the Covenant."

"All dead? Their listed as MIA, and if they are, why aren't their new ones?" Marks asked. He had read some of the in-flight articles, although he concentrated on the Spartans, something he was always interested in after he read about SPARTAN 117 when he was a young kid. His family once took him to see the Memorial on Earth after years of begging and they toured Mombasa and its ruins, New Mombasa, Voi, and Tsavo Highway in Africa.

Blake shrugged. "Well doesn't matter does it, they aren't gonna help us now, and besides, it has to be hell of a coincidence that all of them are MIA."

Marks nodded. Propaganda for sure then.

The lead gold-armored Elite almost reached the first trench when two rockets met it head on, followed by an almost orchestrated blare of MA5Vs, whistle of Carbines, and bass of Kings, punctuated by the rumble of rockets and the cymbals of snipers. The spear of the Elite charge broke and went down, some by the hailstorm of bullets, most by self-preservation. The remaining Elites retreated, followed by loud cheers from the Marines.

"They're running! Sweet Jesus their running!" That one statement drew even more cheers like a moth to a candle. Marks joined in by adding his own two bits but noticed Blake was still sober. Marks shrugged it off and the rest of day went without anymore interesting events. The night was filled with soldiers cheering their victory and mourning the dead. Bottles of wine and barrels of beer were emptied.

The next day, an early attack by the Elites, before sun-up, ended the celebration quickly. The front collapsed.

Marks and his platoon moved a hundred kilometers east.

--


	2. Chapter 2

Neverlasting Peace Neverlasting Peace

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: If I owned Halo, this would be in a game.

_--_

_Planet Gateway- Epsilon Indi: UNSC Shipyard and Scientific Research Center_

Gateway was the heir to Reach. When Reach fell, hundreds of thousands of people were transported to Gateway to start a new base. It was completed weeks later. Half a year later, the first ships were completed in the new bases. Fifty Super-MACs were up and running. Then the war ended in 2553. The citizens of the UN demanded that Gateway be shut down to stop siphoning their tax money for a useless stronghold and to help rebuild areas, especially Africa. The government complied, but only not completely. The shipyards put on standby but the Research Center kept on running. A quantum breakthrough was expected. It had been expected for centuries by wars and rebellions delayed it. Now, in a time of peace, it might finally be completed. Over half a century later, the first prototypes of a Tesla Cannon were fired in Epsilon Eridani at Reach. Another half century passed and the first super conducting Tesla Cannon, powered by a small fusion generator, was added onto the new ship-class, _Thor_. Then a few years later, war re-erupted between the Covenant and the humans. The first attack on Earth had been repelled, true, but unbeknownst was that a ship had penetrated through Earth's defense and glassed a hundredth of New York City before it was taken out by an AI-guided Super-MAC. The destroyed ship and the remainder of the Super-MAC round destroyed another section of New York City.

With an increase in funding, the Research Center began working on the Tesla Shield, a shield with the same basics as the Covenant Energy Shields for their ships, but better. It was immune to EMP and could withstand a Shiva nuke. What ONI found, no good word for it, funny was that they were proposed hundreds of years ago by a man with a dream of peace who came up with weapons of mass destruction and an impenetrable shield and were turned down.

Gateway's shipyards received the green light to enter battle phases and frigates and destroyers were being churned out three a week. Then the _Thor _was given the green light to enter mass-production. Within a year there were twenty of them. A Zeus class was already on the drawing board, larger to attempt to carry ODST Human Entry Vehicles and the Tesla Shield and a fusion reactor to power that too.

--

Gateway: ONI Research Center

_Its strange_, Dr. Jake Lowell thought as he approached the Military Police guarding the entrance to the lab, _if humanity had concentrated more on quantum physics instead of the Manhattan Project, we would have all of this already. Nukes are well and all, but they don't provide for ships._

It was true. Lowell and his group of scientists were working on and revisiting teleportation, a theme that had been pushed aside due to the death and recreation of the teleportee and the fact that if one particle was out of place, a person could suffer severe psychological, neurological, or physical instability. It was truer for a ship. If a small hole was created on the exterior, all personnel in the area would be asphyxiated.

However, teleportation was major. If the Covenant attacked Earth and hundreds of ships and Super-MACs appeared at moments notice, it was worth the risk. Soldiers could be relocated across large areas of land and civilians evacuated to safety.

"Present papers." The left MP barked and Lowell held out his civilian papers, ID, and permission. The soldiers nodded and moved aside as Lowell entered the room.

"Hello Dr. Lowell." A feminine voice inquired.

"Good day, Selena." Dr. Lowell replied.

"Voice scan: positive. Please put your chin on the pad and hand on the scanner." The AI stated. Lowell complied and the next set of doors opened.

There were at least ten entry points before Lowell got to the lab.

"Morning Lowell," said Dr. Josh Turner.

"Likewise Turner. What have we got so far?" Lowell asked.

"Well, we're trying to teleport this mouse from here to Langston's station in the other lab. We have a tag inserted to monitor its location, health, and bio-stats."

Lowell nodded. "Very good. Tell me if anything interesting happens, and I heard ONI wants to go bigger, didn't they tell Rodriguez's group to try to teleport an old freighter?"

Turner shrugged, "Heard of it too, but not sure if its true. If it works, then we'll be going great guns. We could send tanks and supplies to frontline troops with relative ease. And if we sneak a receiver aboard a Covenant ship, we can send them a nuke."

"Yeah, that'd be great. We could send a squad of BlackOps units to sneak an AI or two onboard and we'd have info just like that." Lowell snapped to emphasize his point.

Then they both grinned. Suddenly, the war didn't seem impossible after all.

--

_Gateway: In Orbit_

_Ship: _HammerBolt

_Class: _Thor

Captain Patrick Donovan believed he had to be the luckiest captain alive. He had received a nearly commissioned _Thor_ class ship! Scuttlebutt had it that _Thor_s had an armament, called the Tesla Cannon, which was at least an equal to Covenant Plasma Torpedoes. Donovan wasn't completely sure how it worked but apparently, it drew energy from electrons and basically fired them with ten super conducting coils and it had to be powered by a fusion generator. Even better than that though, they had an AI called Odin, who's avatar was the god. He, Donovan assumed it was a he, had a booming voice.

He inspected his junior officers. Lt. Mallas, Communications Officer, Lt. Johnson, Weapons Control Officer, Lt. Diep Operations Officer, and Lt. King, Navigations Officer. They each seemed competent and serious, although Diep was visibly shorter than the rest and didn't seem as sober.

"Odin, do we have enough energy to move to the outbound vector to enter Slipspace? We have Army personnel to deploy to Graves." Donovan barked to the holo-pad, although Odin could have probably heard him if he whispered in the bathroom.

"Of course Captain. The Thor class _Aurora_, Destroyer class _Sioux_, and two frigates, the _Nina _and the _Santa Maria_, are set to rendezvous with us at 0630 when we exit Slipspace. There appears to be two Covenant Carriers and two frigates there currently.

"What about _Pinta_?" Lt. Diep asked, joking on the square. The _Nina_, _Pinta_, and _Santa Maria _were named after three ships an ancient explorer, Christopher Columbus, used to discover North America. They were also a famous battle group, having already survived more than seven engagements with the Covenant.

"The _Pinta _had a coolant leak and one of the Archer Missiles detonated in the pod. It will join us at 1630 after repairs." Odin boomed as the ship began to fire its maneuvering thruster, and then its main thrusters, to escape the gravity of Gateway. Pinpoints of light began to dot the space around view screen and the _HammerBolt_ entered Slipspace.

"All right, Lt. King is in command. Wake me up at 0400." Donovan said as he headed towards his room.


	3. Chapter 3

Neverlasting Peace Neverlasting Peace

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: If I owned Halo, this would be in a game.

_--_

_Gateway: FleetCOM_

_Location: YOU DO NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO ENTER. _

_ACTIVATING DEFENSES. BEGINNING PURGE._

_Error… Error… Error…_

_Rebooting……………_

_System Online_

"We must re-activate the SPARTAN program if we are to win this war."

Five figures sat around a circular table.

"I agree with Han's analysis. However, we must decide which SPARAN program. Spartan II's, the more expensive, irreplaceable, yet with a longer life expectancy and a morale booster or Spartan III's, cheaper, expendable, and yet only a life expectancy of 13 years and kept in the shadows." A stern, hard, feminine voice stated.

"I vote in favor of SPARTAN II's. Their career record and major victories, especially the one called "117" is extensive. Destroying a Covenant Attack Outpost and most of their fleet, capturing Covenant a Covenant Flagship, not to mention the technology, they are better than the one time bolt of SPARTAN III's." A masculine voice rang out.

"I agree. However, I also make another proposal. The SPI armor of the SPARTAN III's does not require augmentation or much of it. If we asked for volunteers, especially Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, we could give them a small augmentation and outfit them with the SPI armor and have it in mass production. SPARTAN II's require years to complete and we need a faster option now."

"That is all very well. SPARTAN II's do require at least a decade to become fully functional, and SPI armor for ODST will help. However, why not technologically upgrade some of the troops? Take the best or the injured and make cyborgs out of them. Enhanced speed and strength, built in weapons, camouflage, and it will never tire. A fine substitute for a real SPARTAN."

The topic drew attention.

Four voted "Aye" SPARTAN II's

Unanimous vote for armoring ODST's with SPI armor

After a long, heated debate…

Three voted "Aye" for half-human half-robot shock troops.

The meeting disbanded.

--

_Oricaust System: Planet Graves _

_In Orbit _

_Battle Group: HammerBolt, Aurora, Sioux, Nina, Santa Maria_

_0630_

"Sir! Our cryopods failed during the transition. Most of our troops are down!" Lt. Diep yelled.

"Damn it! How did that happen?" Captain Donovan yelled back, angry and frustrated. His mission was already falling apart!

"Hehehe, I'm just screwing with you sir." Diep grinned so widely Donovan couldn't stay mad for long. All the other officers let out relieved sighs and cussed Diep out for the false alarm.

"Odin, what is our actual status?" Donovan asked the holo-pad, wherea man wearing medieval armor, carrying a spear, and bulging with muscles stood.

"Nothing is damaged at all. The transition went smoothly, as with the other ships. We received a transmission from Graves advising us to be aware that an Elite Carrier and two Frigates are in orbit around Graves. FleetCOM has marked that as our Beta priority. Alpha is to drop our troops… here. Also, FleetCOM does not want us attracting attention before we engage the Elite ships."

A display of the planet lit up on the holo-pad and the camera centered and split the planet into sections.

"Column 91 Row 153." Odin completed and disappeared from the display.

"All right, you heard the man. Lt. Johnson, build a charge for our Tesla Cannon so it can fire at moments notice. Lt. King, take us above 91, 153 for Orbital Insertion. Lt. Diep, have the Pelican and Longsword pilots get to their planes at 0730. They'll land the troops at 0800. And no screwing around this time Diep." Donovan ordered. "Mallas, establish connection with whoever the CO is at 91, 153."

"Aye Captain."

_HammerBolt _and the other ships began to fire their engines to maneuver above 91, 153.

"Connection established sir." Mallas alerted.

"This is Lieutenant Marks." A young-looking man appeared onto the screen, face worn with battle fatigue.

"This is the battle group _HammerBolt_. I am Captain Donovan. What's your status?" Donovan asked shocked at first. A lieutenant commanding the forces of Graves? That said nothing good.

"We're not faring very well sir. The bastards glassed the main base, which is how I became CO. I was in combat and I got called back. They have tanks out there slaughtering my men. Their energy shields make them hard to take out. A few of those gold-colored ones are out there too. To give you a summary of how desperate things are, yesterday we were at 93, 153." Lieutenant Marks stated gravely.

Donovan winced. The situation was, is, desperate. To go from 93,153 to 91, 153 had to be at least a two hundred kilometer retreat. In a day.

"We have Army personnel ready to deploy. We also have ODST, the 105th Orbital Drop Shock Trooper."

"Glad to know we're that important." Lieutenant Marks said with feeling. The 105th was one of the most famous divisions in history. "And could you do a little bombarding while you're at it sir?"

"Sorry Lieutenant, we have orders to high up to keep in the shadows until we take out the enemy ships. We'll come back for you later though."

"Right Captain." Marks said skeptically. "Try not to hit us with the ODST (a joke, made when an HEV pod smashed into a Scorpion Tank during a battle sometime in the past) and good luck sir."

"Likewise Lieutenant."

The connection broke.

At 0800, streaks of fire representing the Human Entry Vehicles fell towards Graves.

0815 the ships dropped low enough for Pelicans to enter the atmosphere without burning up.

"All right, now that we got the troops planet-side, time to kick ass." Donovan grinned as the junior officers cheered.

"Sir, contact from the _Sioux_, we have three enemy ships on the radar heading towards us." Lt. Mallas declared.

"Alright men. Take the safety off the Tesla Cannon, Archer Pods, whatever. Diep, sound the Klaxons and close off unessential areas." Donovan ordered. "King, turn us so our Tesla Cannon is facing them."

Klaxons blared throughout the ship as the _HammerBolt _and the others got into skirmish formation, spread out so one shot couldn't take down more than one ship.

"Greetings, Captain Donovan, I am Captain Michael Haley of the _Aurora_. Would you like to do the honors?" A middle-aged man appeared on the screen.

"I'd love to. Already charged the bolt." Donovan replied.

"Well, good luck." The screen blanked.

Electricity and light seemed to gather around the opening of the Tesla Cannon. It formed a condensed sphere the size of an Elephant (the vehicle, not the animal).

"Fire!"

The sphere sped towards the oncoming Covenant Elite ships.

Behind it, another sphere followed, along with four MAC tracers.

Six Plasma Torpedoes raced to meet them, followed by a hundred Seraph Fighters.


End file.
